


No Silver Lining

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [25]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M, this fic is a whump fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3869995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something wasn’t right and Jim didn’t need a doctor to tell him that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Silver Lining

**Author's Note:**

> 30-04-2015
> 
> I am only posting this much because I am even more impatient than you lot:)

Jim watched Bones’ face as the doctor ran his scans. It was better than watching the horrid mess that his leg now was. As soon as he was aboard the Enterprise, Bones manufactured a synthetic bandage that simulated his foot in its looks, but was hollow inside and filled with a nutritious goop that was supposed to help the new tissue that was slowly regenerating. It sounded extremely far-fetched, to think he could actually re-grow a limb, but it was something he could hold on to.

However, in the last two weeks his leg started hurting less, or maybe just in different ways. Something wasn’t right and Jim didn’t need a doctor to tell him that.

Mostly Jim hated everything right now. He hated how people looked at him with pity in their eyes, how Spock would block the turbolift doors so that Jim could hobble with his cane to catch it, how people slowed their pace to accommodate his hobbling. It made him want to vomit, want to scream and rage that it was unfair, that he wasn’t a cripple.

Bones’ face was carefully blank and that in itself was very telling.

“Lay it on me Bones,” Jim urged finally, sensing that the doctor was stalling by fiddling with different settings on his tricorder. The scan didn’t take quite this long.

McCoy rubbed his forehead and exhaled long and slow, obviously trying to keep his composure.

“I’m sorry Jim. I am so sorry.”

Jim could feel ice spreading in his chest, a feeling not unlike that which he suffered when trapped in the submerged wreck.

“Tell me.”

“It’s not working. Whatever I do, nothing works. The serum I made from Khan’s blood makes your body try to regenerate lost tissues… but the problem lies in the fact that you are human, not an Augment, and your body simply doesn’t know what to do with the new tissues and allows it to die,” the doctor said with quiet frustration. “No matter what I do, and I can keep the cells alive for longer, but eventually they die. From what I learned from the very few scans and tests Khan and his people allowed me, their healing works in a different way than I assumed at first. It doesn’t fix whatever existing damage there is, it replaces it. Turin’s lungs for example. They were severely damaged from Uranus’s extreme cold. His body did not heal the damage. It literally digested the damaged lungs and grew a new pair at the same time. That is essentially the brilliance of their physical design. Whenever an organ starts to fail, the body just creates new cells, or a completely new organ in its place using the DNA template for what their body should have. That was basically what Khan tried to achieve with you. He succeeded to a degree. Your body recovered from the hypothermia and drowning admirably. Human bodies are not made to re-grow limbs. Once your neural connection was severed, your brain coded the fact that the limb was gone and no matter what the individual cells are doing, your body rejects it. Normally your body shouldn’t yet have coded the loss. However, because Khan pumped you full of his blood, all normal process have been exponentially faster.”

Jim looked at the blank wall in front of him, very determinately.

“What are my options?” he asked finally. His voice didn’t tremble once.

“If nothing changes within the next ten days, I will have to amputate. You will get a bionic leg within three to six months, depending on the responsiveness of your nerve endings.”

Jim swallowed.

“And as a Captain?”

Bones closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

“As per regulation, you would stay the same rank, but would no longer be allowed to command an active ship. You will be moved either to HQ or most probably the Academy.”

Jim blinked a few times, chasing away the burning in his eyes.

He needed a fucking miracle, and right now it looked like he was fresh out.

The end

**Author's Note:**

> Ha, you didn't expect this, right?


End file.
